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I am the court reporter. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:17 | |
Since 1674, every trial that's been played out between these walls | 0:34:18 | 0:34:24 | |
at London's Old Bailey court, every single one of them, | 0:34:24 | 0:34:27 | |
has been faithfully recorded by a reporter like me. | 0:34:27 | 0:34:30 | |
I sat just here. | 0:34:31 | 0:34:33 | |
I wrote down what was said by whom, | 0:34:34 | 0:34:36 | |
and now you, some while later, can listen in. | 0:34:36 | 0:34:41 | |
You can put your ear to the walls | 0:34:41 | 0:34:43 | |
and hear once again these voices from the past. | 0:34:43 | 0:34:46 | |
Here's a case to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:54 | |
Here's a case that speaks to the dark heart of fear in every man. | 0:34:56 | 0:35:01 | |
A case so shocking, so gruesome | 0:35:01 | 0:35:04 | |
that beyond these walls there is much easy talk of it. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:08 | |
Bloody murder, no less. | 0:35:09 | 0:35:10 | |
The year is 1726. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:20 | |
Two young men, Billings and Wood, | 0:35:21 | 0:35:24 | |
have already been found guilty of their hands in this deadly deed. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:28 | |
But today, the light will shine on the part played by another who, | 0:35:29 | 0:35:34 | |
you might say, is in some very deep water. | 0:35:34 | 0:35:37 | |
Silence in the court! | 0:35:44 | 0:35:47 | |
Order! | 0:35:47 | 0:35:48 | |
Catherine Hayes is indicted for petty treason | 0:35:52 | 0:35:54 | |
in being traitorously present, comforting and maintaining the said | 0:35:54 | 0:35:58 | |
Thomas Billings in the murder of the said John Hayes, her husband. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:02 | |
CROWD GASPS | 0:36:02 | 0:36:04 | |
A murder, and a woman accused, no less. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:08 | |
And for a woman to dispose of her husband amounts to a crime | 0:36:08 | 0:36:12 | |
more heinous than just plain murder. It's called petty treason. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:17 | |
By definition, the betrayal of a master by his subordinate. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:22 | |
Be a traitor to one's husband, and face the punishment | 0:36:24 | 0:36:27 | |
considered equal to the crime. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:29 | |
It has already been established that Thomas Billings | 0:36:32 | 0:36:35 | |
and Thomas Wood were equal parties to the murder of John Hayes. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:40 | |
What we have to establish today is the part played by the said | 0:36:40 | 0:36:44 | |
John Hayes' wife, Catherine Hayes, who stands before you. | 0:36:44 | 0:36:48 | |
Catherine Hayes, how do you plead to the indictment set down before you? | 0:36:50 | 0:36:54 | |
-Not guilty, sir. -Speak up, woman! | 0:36:54 | 0:36:57 | |
Not guilty, sir. | 0:36:57 | 0:36:59 | |
I...I did not do it. | 0:37:01 | 0:37:03 | |
-I... -Ahem! | 0:37:03 | 0:37:05 | |
I will show without question how this wife, this mother, | 0:37:08 | 0:37:13 | |
went to some pains to see to the demise | 0:37:13 | 0:37:16 | |
of he who she should unquestioningly serve. | 0:37:16 | 0:37:19 | |
Firstly, I will show how, on the day in question, | 0:37:21 | 0:37:24 | |
Hayes and her accomplices set out to inebriate Mr Hayes, to dupe him | 0:37:24 | 0:37:31 | |
into drunkenness and render him unable to defend his own person. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:36 | |
I call my first witness, Mr John Blakesly. | 0:37:36 | 0:37:39 | |
I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I give | 0:37:47 | 0:37:49 | |
will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. | 0:37:49 | 0:37:53 | |
John Blakesly, you are resident at the Brawn's Head in New Bond Street. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:59 | |
-That I am, sir, yes. -When did you see the accused? | 0:37:59 | 0:38:01 | |
Er... | 0:38:01 | 0:38:02 | |
..March 1, last. Around four in the afternoon. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:08 | |
The prisoner and two of the men who pleaded guilty | 0:38:08 | 0:38:11 | |
came into our house for six quarts of Mountain, | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
which she paid for at the bar and then saw it put into bottles. | 0:38:14 | 0:38:18 | |
About nine the same night, one of those two men brought back | 0:38:20 | 0:38:23 | |
the empty bottles and had another quart of wine away with him. | 0:38:23 | 0:38:27 | |
In your, erm, qualified opinion then, | 0:38:29 | 0:38:31 | |
this is quite a quantity of wine, is it not? | 0:38:31 | 0:38:34 | |
It is a fair quantity, sir, yes, by all accounts, yes. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:38 | |
Thank you, Mr Blakesly. I should like to call upon | 0:38:38 | 0:38:41 | |
the neighbour of Mr Hayes, Mrs Mary Springet. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:44 | |
Can you tell us, Mrs Springet, in your own words, | 0:38:51 | 0:38:54 | |
exactly what you saw and heard on the day in question? | 0:38:54 | 0:38:58 | |
Well, I'd been out all day at work | 0:38:58 | 0:39:01 | |
and returned about eight or nine at night. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:04 | |
My husband told me there had been great merrymaking below. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:07 | |
Drinking and dancing and singing. | 0:39:07 | 0:39:11 | |
Well, I was tired and I wanted to go to bed, but I was willing first | 0:39:11 | 0:39:15 | |
to know that their liquor was almost out and so I came down | 0:39:15 | 0:39:19 | |
and tapped at the door, and asked her if they'd almost done drinking. | 0:39:19 | 0:39:23 | |
"Aye, child," says she. "I'm just not going to bed." | 0:39:23 | 0:39:26 | |
And so up I goes again. And not long after, I heard the door open. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:36 | |
I called and asked who it was that went out. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
"Oh," says she, "'tis my husband." | 0:39:42 | 0:39:45 | |
He's gone into the country with a charge of money. | 0:39:45 | 0:39:48 | |
I'm frightened out of my wits that he should be murdered. | 0:39:48 | 0:39:50 | |
I've never met such an obstinate man in all my life | 0:39:50 | 0:39:53 | |
when he gets a little liquor. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:55 | |
There was no persuading him to stay till morning. | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
I fear he has been set upon by some wicked rogue or other, | 0:39:58 | 0:40:01 | |
who might have knocked him on the head for his money. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:04 | |
I went into my own room, but had not been there long before I heard | 0:40:06 | 0:40:11 | |
something drooling along the floor. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:14 | |
I looked out and I saw the two men that was with her | 0:40:15 | 0:40:19 | |
go out at the door. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:20 | |
In a little time, I heard another bustling below. | 0:40:21 | 0:40:24 | |
SHE BANGS ON THE FLOOR | 0:40:24 | 0:40:26 | |
I heard the men going out again | 0:40:26 | 0:40:28 | |
and I stepped to the stairhead and looked down. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:31 | |
The next day, which was Thursday, I saw Wood go out with a bundle | 0:40:33 | 0:40:38 | |
and turn down Swallow Street. Well, I asked her what that bundle was. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:43 | |
"Why," says she, "'tis a suit of clothes." | 0:40:43 | 0:40:46 | |
Well, pray, Mistress Hayes, tell me, what is the matter? | 0:40:47 | 0:40:51 | |
Nothing, Mrs Springet, I beg you, make yourself easy. | 0:40:51 | 0:40:55 | |
Gentlemen, I will show that this account is consistent | 0:41:02 | 0:41:08 | |
with what occurred next. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:09 | |
The very next day, there was an horrific discovery. | 0:41:10 | 0:41:14 | |
Some poor soul came upon a head found floating close | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
to the shore of the River Thames, | 0:41:20 | 0:41:22 | |
quite separated from the body to which it was once attached. | 0:41:22 | 0:41:26 | |
This head, gentlemen, was raised on a spike | 0:41:26 | 0:41:29 | |
and stood in the churchyard of St Margaret's | 0:41:29 | 0:41:31 | |
that anyone recognising the features | 0:41:31 | 0:41:33 | |
might give some account of the person. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:35 | |
Later, the arms, thighs and legs of a man cut asunder | 0:41:35 | 0:41:39 | |
were discovered wrapped in a blanket in a pond by Marylebone. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:42 | |
Mrs Springet, what did you know of the head that was found? | 0:41:44 | 0:41:47 | |
The head that was thrown into the Thames at Millbank, | 0:41:47 | 0:41:50 | |
and the pail that it was carried in, was both brought to me | 0:41:50 | 0:41:53 | |
at the gatehouse to see if I knew them. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:56 | |
And I did know that the head was Mr Hayes's | 0:41:56 | 0:41:59 | |
and that the pail was his pail. | 0:41:59 | 0:42:01 | |
This being the said pail, Mrs Springet? | 0:42:02 | 0:42:06 | |
Yes, sir. That pail, sir. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:08 | |
Gentlemen, the heart of this case is dark indeed. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:16 | |
What you have seen and heard so far, you will have noted, | 0:42:17 | 0:42:21 | |
is entirely circumstantial. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:23 | |
And yet, the woman who stands before you has herself, | 0:42:23 | 0:42:27 | |
in her own words, given a clear confession | 0:42:27 | 0:42:31 | |
and account of her hand in the murder of her husband. | 0:42:31 | 0:42:34 | |
I call my next witness - Mr Watkins. | 0:42:37 | 0:42:39 | |
Mr Watkins, you made a visit to the prisoner | 0:42:45 | 0:42:48 | |
after she was taken to Newgate, did you not? | 0:42:48 | 0:42:51 | |
I went to visit her several times. | 0:42:51 | 0:42:54 | |
"For God's sake," says I, "what could put it into your head | 0:42:54 | 0:42:59 | |
"to commit such a barbarous murder on your own husband?" | 0:42:59 | 0:43:03 | |
"Why," says she, "I can't account but that the devil put it into my head." | 0:43:04 | 0:43:11 | |
The devil put itself in here and I couldn't get it out. | 0:43:12 | 0:43:15 | |
John Hayes was never the best of husbands, | 0:43:15 | 0:43:17 | |
for I've been half-starved ever since I was married, | 0:43:17 | 0:43:20 | |
but I do not repent for anything that I have done. | 0:43:20 | 0:43:24 | |
Only for drawing those two poor men into this misfortune. | 0:43:24 | 0:43:27 | |
And what account did she give of the night in question? | 0:43:28 | 0:43:32 | |
What she said was this. | 0:43:32 | 0:43:35 | |
"My husband was made so drunk that he fell out of his chair..." | 0:43:35 | 0:43:40 | |
..and Billings and Wood carried him into the back room | 0:43:40 | 0:43:43 | |
and laid him on the bed. | 0:43:43 | 0:43:44 | |
They told me that Billings struck him | 0:43:44 | 0:43:47 | |
over the head twice with a poleaxe and would cut his throat. | 0:43:47 | 0:43:51 | |
When he was dead, I went into the room and held the candle | 0:43:54 | 0:43:57 | |
while Wood cut his head right off. | 0:43:57 | 0:43:59 | |
And then afterwards they cut off his legs and his arms. | 0:44:00 | 0:44:05 | |
And why did you use your husband in such an inhumane manner? | 0:44:05 | 0:44:10 | |
Because we wanted to get him into an old chest. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
But he was too long, and too big. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:19 | |
We thought we could do it by cutting off his head and his legs, | 0:44:20 | 0:44:23 | |
and then we was forced to cut off his arms and his thighs, | 0:44:25 | 0:44:30 | |
but the chest wouldn't hold them all. | 0:44:30 | 0:44:32 | |
So the body and the limbs were wrapped in blankets | 0:44:33 | 0:44:36 | |
and thrown into a pond. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:38 | |
"And what," says I, | 0:44:39 | 0:44:40 | |
"can you say for yourself when you come before the judge?" | 0:44:40 | 0:44:45 | |
I'll hold up my hand and say that I am guilty for nothing can save me. | 0:44:45 | 0:44:49 | |
Nobody can forgive me. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:51 | |
So she clean confessed it. | 0:44:54 | 0:44:57 | |
Mr Watkins, you saw the prisoner again soon after, did you not? | 0:44:57 | 0:45:02 | |
And the account she gave of herself had altered, I believe. | 0:45:02 | 0:45:05 | |
"I'm glad you've come," said she, "for the men who did the murder..." | 0:45:06 | 0:45:11 | |
..they have confessed it. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:13 | |
For I was not with them, see, the night that they did it, | 0:45:13 | 0:45:16 | |
for I was sat upon a stool by the fire. | 0:45:16 | 0:45:19 | |
But I heard the first blow being given and I heard somebody stamp. | 0:45:19 | 0:45:22 | |
-And why did not you cry out? -Because I was afraid they would kill me too. | 0:45:22 | 0:45:28 | |
"What," said I, "was the first occasion | 0:45:29 | 0:45:32 | |
"of you contriving to do this?" | 0:45:32 | 0:45:35 | |
"Why," she says, "my husband came home drunk and he beat me." | 0:45:35 | 0:45:41 | |
Billings said this fellow deserves to be killed. | 0:45:43 | 0:45:46 | |
Wood said he'd be his butcher for a penny and I told them | 0:45:46 | 0:45:50 | |
they might do as they would, so I made a contrivance to kill him. | 0:45:50 | 0:45:56 | |
Why did you not tell your husband of this design to murder him? | 0:45:56 | 0:46:00 | |
Because I was afraid he might beat me again. | 0:46:02 | 0:46:04 | |
She spoke much of Mr Hayes beating and mortifying her, | 0:46:06 | 0:46:12 | |
and sometimes breaking her ribs and bones. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:15 | |
-And of him having murdered two newborn children of hers. -Thank you. | 0:46:16 | 0:46:21 | |
Mr Watkins, that will be all. | 0:46:21 | 0:46:23 | |
May I remind you, gentlemen, that the woman hath confessed it, | 0:46:24 | 0:46:28 | |
and then she tried to confess it again | 0:46:28 | 0:46:31 | |
in a manner that might lessen her part, | 0:46:31 | 0:46:33 | |
but her guilt in this matter is plain to see. | 0:46:33 | 0:46:38 | |
She importuned Wood and Billings to do her bidding. | 0:46:38 | 0:46:43 | |
She stood watch whilst one of them struck him with an axe | 0:46:43 | 0:46:46 | |
and the other took a knife to his throat! | 0:46:46 | 0:46:50 | |
And then, for a final indignity, she held a candle close | 0:46:50 | 0:46:54 | |
whilst they cut off the unfortunate's head. | 0:46:54 | 0:46:57 | |
Gentlemen, you must do your duty and decide the defendant's part, | 0:46:59 | 0:47:05 | |
bearing in mind all that you have heard | 0:47:05 | 0:47:07 | |
in cool assessment of the facts before you. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:10 | |
So now they must decide the fate of a woman | 0:47:14 | 0:47:17 | |
who stands accused of the charge of petty treason. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:20 | |
They never take long. | 0:47:20 | 0:47:23 | |
A few hushed whispers and the matter will be settled. | 0:47:23 | 0:47:26 | |
Have you reached your verdict? | 0:47:30 | 0:47:31 | |
On the charge of petty treason, we find the defendant, | 0:47:34 | 0:47:38 | |
Catherine Hayes, | 0:47:38 | 0:47:40 | |
guilty. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:42 | |
JUDGE BANGS HIS GAVEL | 0:47:42 | 0:47:44 | |
Catherine Hayes... | 0:47:47 | 0:47:48 | |
..I sentence you to be burnt at the stake. | 0:47:49 | 0:47:52 | |
SHE GASPS | 0:47:52 | 0:47:56 | |
Catherine Hayes will face a grisly fate, burnt to death at the stake. | 0:48:04 | 0:48:10 | |
Her story might remain untold, | 0:48:12 | 0:48:17 | |
how she came to such a place, | 0:48:17 | 0:48:19 | |
but her name will be remembered, | 0:48:20 | 0:48:23 | |
though be it a sombre epitaph. | 0:48:23 | 0:48:26 | |
Catherine Hayes will be the last woman ever | 0:48:28 | 0:48:30 | |
to be burnt at the stake for the crime of petty treason. | 0:48:30 | 0:48:34 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:48:53 | 0:48:56 |